Reeves Commits to Cowboy Bebop

His sci-fi remake The Day the Earth Stood Still didn’t exactly hold the world spellbound, but Keanu Reeves is hoping for better success with a live-action adaptation of a popular anime series. Daily Variety reports that the actor is officially attached to play Spike Spiegel in 20 Century Fox’s big-screen take on the animated Japanese TV series Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop follows the adventures of a rag-tag band of intergalactic bounty hunters who operate out of a spacecraft dubbed ‘Bebop.’ Ringleader Spike Spiegel is long and lean with the looks of an ’80s pop idol and the moves of Bruce Lee, and his right hand man, Jet Black, is a muscle-bound brute with a heart of gold and a titanium arm. Rounding out the team are the beautiful, but deadly, vixen Faye Valentine and adolescent computer whiz Ed, a girl perpetually in a world of her own.

Sunrise In., producer of the anime show, will reportedly play a role in the development of the live-action version. The company’s Kenji Uchida and Shinichiro Wantanabe will serve as associate producers, as will series scribe Keiko Nobumoto. In addition, series producer Masahiko Minami will act as a production consultant. The English-language screenplay is being written by Peter Craig (Nevel is the Devil) and Erwin Stoff, who produced The Day the Earth Stood Still, is producing the pic through his 3 Arts production company.